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Scientists Test World's Fastest Wireless Network

Posted by Soulskill on from the what-can't-lasers-do dept.

MojoKid writes "Scientists in Pisa, Italy claim to have set a new world record for the fastest wireless data transmission. They report that they were able to achieve throughput speeds above 1.2 Terabits per second, which they say beats the previous wireless data transmission speed record of 160 Gigabits per second, achieved by Korean scientists. The technology that the Pisa scientists utilized actually shares a significant similarity with fiber optics. Unlike Wi-Fi or microwave communications, which use radio-based transmissions, the Pisa scientists used a technology called free-space optical communications. In free space optics, an energy beam is collimated and transmitted through space rather than being guided through an optical cable."

4 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Really by cefek · · Score: 2, Interesting

    there should be a difference between point-2-point speed record, and point-2-multipoint, which concerns most of us wifi-users. P2P connections are used mainly in business, and they can have backup links should, let's say' fog happen that will disperse all the transmission (reduced wisibility).

    --
    Plain old sigh.
    1. Re:Really by Bios_Hakr · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Couldn't a rotating prism be used to turn this into a miltipoint link? Sure, you'd lose some bandwidth and you'd still need LOS. But you could easily queue and time packet transmission in time with the rotation. Kinda like old airplanes shooting bullets through the blades.

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      I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
  2. make it cheaper, not faster by Zobeid · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Free space optics has been around for a while, and cost has been more of a stumbling block than speed. I'd much rather have a 10 mb/s rig for $500, rather than the 1000 mb/s rigs companies are selling today for $50,000.

    I've been interested in the Ronja project for a while, but it's very labor intensive to build and deploy. Somebody ought to commercialize it.

  3. This has happened before by yttrstein · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was about to say the same thing about wireless being omnidirectional and "free space" optics being single point source and directional.

    It occurs to me however that this is not new technology. Back in Chicago in the mid 90s, I did some interesting work at a very well funded mom-and-pop ISP that was playing with some "line of sight" (RF and optical) T-1 equivalents. The "free space optic" portion of the circuit died completely every time it rained, so it wasn't too terribly useful for anything outdoors, like shooting a high speed line across town by aiming a couple of transceivers out some open windows.